Martin talked about the weekly build available on the downloads page, created 2AM GMT on Wednesdays, and about Moodle HQ and others (especially Dan - thanks!) testing bug fixes from the previous week, looking for regressions. Developers should avoid checking in core code on Tuesdays. More help testing bug fixes would be appreciated!

Potential candidates for inclusion into 1.9.x

Petr described a number of possible features:

Group self selection module - MDL-1310 (Petr coding, Helen usability and documentation), first draft now available in contrib

Andrea B asked whether automatic group creation could be expanded to make use of user profile fields e.g. city or country or custom fields. Martin replied that it was a good idea and it should be added to the tracker.

Tim queried whether these changes should be made in a stable branch, to which Martin responded that Moodle 2.0 is a long way off and that the changes are relatively small. Martin requested that people use the tracker for commenting and/or voting on these issues.

MDL-6605 Database access is to be refactored so that: we can use prepared statements everywhere for increased security and some performance, we put datalib functions in a class to allow better unit tests (mock db), and remove the need for slashes in userspace. This will cause breakage for 3rd party modules (but fixing them won't be too hard). It's worth doing, though there will be no apparent benefit to users.

Pagelib 2.0, Blocks 2.0

Refactor Blocks and Pages using contexts to allow blocks to go anywhere in Moodle with better control, no spec yet

The feedback module is now in core. It was chosen because it has a nice modular structure, uses templates and can be exported, though there's still work to do. It may be possible to integrate the survey module into the feedback module.

A host of UI improvements to enhance usability and speed. Nicolas C working on this, improvements are now in head, switch ajax on in my preferences, edit grades and feedback directly, use like a spreadsheet, tab between fields or use arrow keys, updates every time you tab. Please try it - feedback appreciated!

Tim asked Martin to pick a date for major features to be finished by e.g. Sept / Oct then allow major testing after this date. Martin replied that the 2.0 spec is still being worked on, though a deadline for finishing the specs is a good idea. 1.9.1 will be released hopefully next week, then focus on finishing specs. Some things may not make it into 2.0.

Other news

Helen described how Google are funding twelve projects this year (two more than last year) - see GSOC/2008 for a list. We had tons of applications and so were able to choose the very best students :-) Students will be following our common development process, beginning with creating a specification in Moodle Docs and then refining it based on community feedback. Coding is due to start from 26 May onwards. Let's help and encourage our new Moodle developers wherever we can!

The OU blog

Sam Marshall described the OU blog, developed by Catalyst. It's a module which behaves like a standard blog, though not necessarily like the Moodle blog. It includes comments, OU search, tracking and RSS feeds. It will be released as a contrib module for 1.9, hopefully in a few weeks time.

Martin mentioned phpdocs, which is built nightly for 1.9 and weekly for 1.8 maintained volume. Valery is currently experimenting with different settings and will post in general developer forum. He should write additional coding recommandations for phpdoc tagging so generated documentation can be improved.

Helen informed everyone that the next developer meeting will be the Developer Hackfest on Monday 9th June, prior to the San Francisco 2008 MoodleMoot. Hopefully lots of developers will be able to attend in person, though we will be using Elluminate to provide remote access.